Leipzig’s Hydrogen Garbage Trucks Fail The Tuesday Test

The German city of Leipzig bought 16 hydrogen-powered garbage trucks in 2024 to replace part of its regular collection fleet. Two years later, the city reported these trucks were actually available for work only 45.6% of the time, compared to about 80% for standard diesel trucks. Breakdowns, maintenance, and repairs kept the hydrogen trucks sidelined so often that the manufacturer had to supply conventional trucks to cover the missed routes.

This isn't really a story about your own home, but it does speak to a broader question homeowners weighing energy upgrades sometimes ask: is hydrogen or battery technology the more reliable bet? For heavy vehicles like garbage trucks, the answer so far looks lopsided. Battery-electric versions of the same trucks are already running in large numbers — Copenhagen, Westminster, and a U.S. company called Republic Services (with over 250 electric trucks and growing) all report strong, dependable performance. One German city, Freiburg, has made hydrogen refuse trucks work, but only by building extra fueling stations and backup systems, showing how much infrastructure hydrogen needs even for a small fleet.

For a homeowner, the takeaway isn't about garbage trucks themselves, but about the pattern: battery technology keeps proving itself as the more practical, lower-maintenance choice for everyday equipment, while hydrogen remains harder to keep running reliably outside of showcase projects. That's useful context if you're comparing heat pumps, electric vehicles, or other electric equipment against hydrogen-based alternatives for your own home.